23
Emotional distress. Discriminatory treatment. Loss of enjoyment. Recklessness. Those were just the general damages. Then there were the special damages. Medical costs. Lost income. Out-of-pocket expenses. Defamation.
Defamation! My mouth dropped in shock and I looked at Declan. It was barely a week since he’d issued the summons and subsequently the official claim’s bill, but already the Coopers had hit back. “Defamation: are you joking me? Loss of enjoyment: seriously?” I exclaimed. I shook the paper I was holding so hard I felt it crinkle and crackle in my grip. I was seeing red, that was how angry I was.
Declan leaned across his desk and gently took the offending document out of my hand. In their counterclaim, the Coopers had essentially copied every single item in our original Statement of Claim document and then thrown other—seemingly frivolous—claims in for good measure.
How dare they? It was ridiculous. And downright insulting, too.
I’m not sure what reaction I expected exactly, but I certainly didn’t anticipate this. Christine was right all along: Tom and Madeleine Cooper were unapologetic, arrogant and completely deluded!
The nerve of them...
“I don’t think we want to rip that up,” Declan said, laying the document on his desk and smoothing it.
“But, Declan,” I said, “they have essentially made a mockery of our claim. We also mention pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of income and out-of-pocket expenses. All of that is correct and reasonable, considering. We didn’t go overboard or be frivolous and I feel like this is just throwing those valid concerns right back in my face.”
Not only that, but they had, according to Declan, put me “on proof.” Most of the legal terms in relation to this went over my head, but he explained that basically Madeleine Cooper and her husband were denying that they were responsible for passing on the infection via Clara and putting the onus on us to prove it.
“Kate, try not to take it so personally. I told you that a counterclaim was a possibility and, honestly, I’m not in the least surprised by this. I know it can feel very personal and shocking, but really this is probably just the defendants’ solicitor throwing his weight around.”
I huffed indignantly. “But it comes across just so bloody...pompous!” I growled, folding my arms against my chest defensively. “Lost income? For real? Madeleine works from home and I doubt that Tom was forced to take parental leave because he couldn’t work while Clara was sick.” I felt myself getting worked up into even more of a lather. Rosie and I were the injured parties here!
And instead of apologizing or offering to help like any decent person would do, the Coopers had simply turned around and told us—me—to prove it.
All of this was borderline surreal.
Declan held up his hands. “Of course I agree with you, but—and I’m just playing devil’s advocate here—if the husband had to take up any of his annual leave, for instance...”
“But I wasn’t the one who sent my highly contagious daughter to school! And why was Madeleine leaving me apologetic messages or sending presents to the hospital if they seriously thought this was all my fault?”
Suddenly, I felt the energy drain from my body. What the hell had I been thinking? The Coopers had not only called my proverbial bluff, they had now completely upped the ante by countersuing me. I’d gotten a reaction from them all right, just not the one I’d hoped for, or expected.
Thinking about that alone made me feel ready to launch into a violent rage. How could any of this be considered my fault?
“Kate,” said Declan calmly. “Look at me. Please.”
Trying to breathe deeply, I looked up and met my solicitor’s gaze.
“I need you to understand that this is a very normal and all-too-common legal response. I would have honestly been shocked if the other solicitor hadn’t taken this course of action—though, to be fair, the defamation thing was a bit of a surprise.” He allowed a small reassuring smile to find its way onto his face.
I swallowed hard. “You aren’t just trying to make me feel better?”
He shook his head earnestly. “No. I’m not. I wouldn’t do that to you, I told you that before. We’re in this together. All we have here is the Coopers’ solicitor acting in their clients’ best interest. None of it means anything until we get into the nitty-gritty of the actual particulars. Does that make sense?”
I shrugged. Honestly, none of this made sense anymore.
“All of this is nothing more than legal posturing, believe me. We are going to reply to this and I’ll apply to get this counterclaim thrown out, which I’m sure any judge will do without blinking. By issuing a response like this, what their solicitor is doing is entering an appearance, which basically means that he’s replying on the Coopers’ behalf and entering a defense—an intent to defend our claims bill. The judge will look at both claims, assess in particular the duty of care issue and assess whether or not it stands. If he decides that it does, from there on it’s all guns blazing. We’ll then start the process of compiling evidence and recording witness information—basically building our case. Does that make sense?”
I nodded softly, but the truth was I was completely bamboozled.
“Of course, there is always the chance that they could be trying to call our bluff, too. There could even come a point where the Coopers may decide to mediate and settle before we even get to court.”
“And what happens if they don’t?”
“If the judge agrees on the duty of care claim,” Declan said confidently, “then we’ll have our day in court.”
He said this as if it was all so simple and straightforward.
“So what next?”
“I’m already on it,” he answered, automatically infusing in me a confidence I didn’t feel. “Alison’s preparing all the documentation for the Motion to Dismiss hearing—we should have a date on that in a few weeks—and we are working on the authorizations for all of the medical records so we can establish the timelines. From the wording of the Coopers’ counterclaim, they’re putting us ‘on proof,’ basically putting the onus on us to prove that Clara infected her.”
I shook my head. “But Clara must have. She got sick first. No question.”
“True. But what they are implying is that Rosie could have just as easily caught the disease from anyone.”
I thought back to those first few days when everything happened just before our lives had been upended. Clara had been sent home from school one day, and Rosie had woken up feverish three days later.
It was a tight timeline but it was a timeline.
To say nothing of the fact that the Coopers had just taken a flight from a destination that had recently suffered a measles outbreak. Whereas where had Rosie been over Easter? At home in Knockroe, with me.
And unlike Clara, I thought, my mouth hardening into a thin line at yet another example of the Coopers’ blatant disregard for the rules, my daughter had returned to school when term resumed, unlike Clara, who was off enjoying herself in Florida, taking home a souvenir to her schoolmates that could still yet prove to be fatally dangerous.
I checked my watch, realizing I was wasting too much time seething at the Coopers when I should be at my daughter’s bedside. “I’d better go,” I told Declan, standing up suddenly. “I need to be at the hospital.”
He looked at me speculatively. “You sure you’re still OK with all of this, Kate? Like I said before, we can pull back at any time.”
“No,” I replied firmly. “Do what you have to.”
While admittedly I’d had a huge case of the jitters and major second thoughts once I’d given Declan the go-ahead to issue the summons, now I was glad I hadn’t just lain down like a meek doe and accepted my, and indeed Rosie’s, fate.
But now—with a response like that from the Coopers?
Bring it on.